Giovanni Francesco Venturini
(1650–1710)
Veduta della cascata sotto l'organo nel piano del giardino.
Etching, plate 21 in Giovanni Battista Falda (ca. 1640–1678) and Giovanni Francesco Venturini, Le fontane di Roma nelle piazze e luoghi publici della città.
Vol. 4.
Rome: Giovanni Giacomo de Rossi, [ca. 1680s].
Gift of Paul Mellon, 1979
PML 76264
Item description:
In 1661 Gian Lorenzo Bernini altered the gardens of the Villa d'Este at Tivoli to create a tumultuous cascade of water erupting through the garden wall and crashing down onto an axis of rugged boulders. Acclaimed as the most spectacular artificial waterfall of its century, it was a precursor of Sublime extremes in landscape architecture.